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Which or ATOC - who reads train fares right?

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2011-09-22 20:10:13 - Graham Ellis

"Which", the magazine of the Consumer's association, tests out the train ticketting system of the railways in somw way - or does a customer survey - at least once a year. And they always find anomolies, things that are hard to understand, customers who are missold, or some things like that.

In response, the Association of Train Operating Companies always defends the fare system as it stands, and critisize the methodology used by the Consumer's association - I've watched it year in and year out, and it's a bit of a formal game.

There are indeed a huge number of fares and pricings available for rail travel ... I came up with a quick list of the options.

You may start with a choice of a common basic ticket type:

* Specific Train Only single
* Offpeak single
* Superoffpeak single
* Anytime single
* Anytime period Return
* Offpeak period Return
* Superoffpeak period return
* Day Return
* Offpeak Day Return
* SuperOffpeak Day Return

Then you may be able to choose the class:

* First Class
* Standard Class
* Weekend First

If your journey is a regular one, or you're going to be doing a bit of other travelling too, you may also wish to look at:

* Seasons
* I think there are some offpeak seasons too?
* Freedom, Ranger and Rover
* Carnets
* Oyster

You may be able to take advantage of some of the following special ticket types:

* TOC Specials (e.g. "LM trains only")
* Route Specific (e.g. "Via Bath")
* Specialtrain (e.g. Steam Special)
* Railcarded (e.g. 16 - 25)
* Grouped (e.g. Groupsave)
* Packaged (e.g. includes Ferry)

And you may qualify / be eligible for the following:

* Qualifying Person (e.g. 5-15, non UK Resident / Britrail, Club 55)
* Permit to travel (from a machine that can't issue the ticket you need)
* Free (e.g. LHR 1-3 to 4)
* Fraudulent (the only one in my list that is never legal)
* Penalty (when you get found out for fraudulent)
* Accompanying disabled person, Brit accompanying non-Brit on Britrail

You may be able to get discounts, or have to pay a supplement

* Web discounted (where you are offered money off to book online)
* Sleeper berth required
* Credit card charge or postage charge for tickets added

Finally, although you're travelling from "A" to "C" that may only be part of your rail journey; breaks may be allowed and you may wish to use:

* Splits (where tickets A-B + B-C are used rather than A-C)
* Overshoots (where you get on after the start point of the ticket or leave before ticket destination)

The rules for each type of ticket differ, though there are commonalities between many of them, and you'll usually find that many (but not all) of the fares listed are available on your route(s).

So - who is "right" - Which? or ATOC?

They're both right. And they'r both wrong.

If a train ticket system were being derived from scratch today, I doubt whether it would be as complex as the current system is. Part of that complexity is because some of the fares are controlled (to a greater or lesser extent) by the Department for Transport. Others are set nationally. And others are set by the train operating companies. A few also involve local inputs, and there are all sorts of "bits of history" and rammifications of changes.

Which is completely correct in saying that the system is far more complex than it needs to be. But they are incorrect in implying that every traveller needs to be aware of the detailed conditions on specific fares (such as "advanced") if an advance fare simply wouldn't be relevant to that traveller - if, for example (s)he was a season ticket holder.

ATOC are correct in pointing out this statistical flaw in Which's argument and work, but in my view they're very wrong to imply that the system is easy enough to understand. You only have to be in the position that I'm often in - helping people who very rarely use trains in the UK (and perhaps who only speak broken English) and you realise just how baffling the whole thing can be. I like to think I know quie a bit about fares - but I still learn something new about them every day ...

Here is an discssion of the report, and some clarified examples of how certain fares. There are some example cases under discussion [here], [here] and [here].